I don't care how you interpret these commandments. I'm just curious which ones you keep or don't keep within your own understanding. The excerpt below is from the HSCB bible, but you can use any translation you want.

==============================

(1) Do not have other gods besides Me.

(2) Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands.

(3) Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.

(4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

(5) Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(6) Do not murder.

(7) Do not commit adultery.

(8) Do not steal.

(9) Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.

(10) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

drealm wrote:I don't care how you interpret these commandments. I'm just curious which ones you keep or don't keep within your own understanding. The excerpt below is from the HSCB bible, but you can use any translation you want.

==============================

(1) Do not have other gods besides Me.

(2) Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands.

(3) Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.

(4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

(5) Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(6) Do not murder.

(7) Do not commit adultery.

(8) Do not steal.

(9) Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.

(10) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

==============================

Lets see...

(1) I am open to the possibility of there being other gods, finding their existence no more or less plausible then then that of the God of the old testament

(2) I have no idols, unless you count a few small Buddha figurines serving largely as decoration and causing no harm to anyone - if God would punish my children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren for my choice of household decoration, then f**k him

(3) Don't think I have, and if ever I did it was with good reason

(4) I do not observe Sabbath as I am, at least culturally, a Catholic man and therefore my Sabbath would be on Sunday rather then Saturday

(5) I honor my father and mother and have tremendous respect for them

(6) I have never murdered another human being and don't intend to ever do so

(7) I have never slept with another man's wife and don't intend to ever do so

(8) I have stolen a few minor objects as a child, for which I was duly punished, and have never done so again

(9) I prefer to be honest as often as I can

(10) All of us have had feelings of jealousy from time to time, and no man is entirely free of the sin of wanting what is not yours, or wishing it was yours - but I respect the work they had to put into getting all that I have, and aim to earn the same good fortune for myself by working equally hard or harder

drealm wrote:So to clarify, are you saying you observe the Sabbath on Sundays instead of Saturdays or that you don't observe it at all?

Although I have to work most of the weeks' days to save up and make money, I try to keep Sunday off whenever possible. You might say sundays are my Sabbath, and I take that as seriously as my circumstances allow me. As far as my wife, daughter and servant goes, they keep it - my wife does not work and I prefer it that way, we have a woman who helps out in the household and my daughter is too young to do any work. So you might say that we observe the Sabbath.

I don't worship, although I don't really understand God. I'm not sure what should qualify as worship either. For example, if a man seeks solitude in nature to find God in the silence, could that be worship? Does it have to include overt prayer or hymns?

Interesting question.

"Come ye apart into a lonely place and rest a while."
-Jesus of Nazareth

"Well actually, she's not REALLY my daughter. But she does like to call me Daddy... at certain moments..."

(1) I am open to the possibility of there being other gods, finding their existence no more or less plausible then then that of the God of the old testament

It doesn't say "Do not believe in other gods besides Me", it says have. There is absolutely nothing in the Old Testament telling you what to believe. The point is not to have other gods as your own own.

(1) Do not have other gods besides Me. I'm a panentheist, I do not believe in the god of the Bible.

(2) Do not make an idol for yourself. I don't hold with idolatry.

(3) Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name. This means nothing to me at all.

(4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. I don't keep the Sabbath but I have weekends off where I do no work, does that count?

(5) Honor your father and your mother. Living abroad I don't talk to them very often, and I hardly see them at all. I don't plan on becoming their carer either. On the other hand I don't disrespect them, and I have relatively decent relationships with them now.

(6) Do not murder. Ok

(7) Do not commit adultery. This refers to sex with a married woman rather than sex with someone other than one's own partner, right? In that case I haven't broken it though I can't say I never would. I acknowledge it's wrong though.

(8) Do not steal. I don't steal from individuals but I can't say I wouldn't rip off a big business if I could get away with it.

(9) Do not give false testimony against your neighbor. Ok

(10) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Ok.

fschmidt wrote:It doesn't say "Do not believe in other gods besides Me", it says have. There is absolutely nothing in the Old Testament telling you what to believe. The point is not to have other gods as your own own.

Then I honor that commandment too. Because regardless of my personal convinctions, the only religious house I step foot in regularly is a church and the only God I pray to is the God of the Bible. A remarkably practical-minded book, the Bible.

(1) I am open to the possibility of there being other gods, finding their existence no more or less plausible then then that of the God of the old testament

It doesn't say "Do not believe in other gods besides Me", it says have. There is absolutely nothing in the Old Testament telling you what to believe. The point is not to have other gods as your own own.

What's the difference? Does it mean that it would be acceptable to believe in other gods as long as one did not worship them?